Press Release
October 3, 2003
"Flash Remoting: The Definitive Guide": When Programmers Get Flashy, Users Get Lucky
Sebastopol, CA--Today's hottest topics in web development are web
services and Rich Internet Applications (RIAs)...and Flash Remoting is
pivotal to both. Tom Muck's Flash Remoting: The Definitive Guide
(O'Reilly, US $39.95) equips readers to take advantage of this
breakthrough, server-side technology to integrate rich Macromedia Flash
content with their existing applications in order to create RIAs that
connect to remote databases and services. The end result is fast and
flexible client/server applications that resemble highly functional
desktop applications with their complex interactivity and ability to
deliver nearly instant--and seemingly constant--gratification to end
users.
What's so flashy about Flash Remoting? It's invisibly powerful.
According to author Tom Muck, "Flash Remoting allows the Flash movie to
do what it does best--interact with the user--and allows the
server-side application to do what it does best--process information."
Acting as a gateway to the server, Flash Remoting offers true, seamless
client/server communication that is transparent to the user.
It's also efficient. "I make my living as a ColdFusion and SQL Server
programmer, and I much prefer how a desktop application works to a web
application," claims Muck, senior applications developer for Integram
and coauthor of six Macromedia-related books. He likens the traditional
HTML experience--the click-and-wait-to-load client/server communication
with a browser--to a dreadfully inefficient phone conversation: "You
ask a question and hang up the phone. You friend calls back and answers
the question, then hangs up. You call him back, add something to the
conversation, and hang up again." Muck is drawn to Flash Remoting
because it does away with that ridiculousness; instead of being
page-based, the technology is based on a single, central interface with
no page reloads (a browser need only download the subset of information
that has changed from page to page).
And it's versatile. "Flash and Flash Remoting are bringing the same
interactivity and usability to the Web that GUIs brought to the desktop
a generation ago," reports Muck. The result is a robust user interface
that can be deployed across browsers, platforms, and devices. Flash
Remoting smoothly connects to Macromedia ColdFusion MX, Server-Side
ActionScript, Java, .NET, PHP, or SOAP-based web services. Server-side
code does not require any Flash-specific syntax; and because
ActionScript's syntax is nearly identical to JavaScript, web scripters
can quite easily transition to Flash.
Flash Remoting technology may be new, but many major sites are already
adopting it for valuable and varied uses (developing online stores
featuring catalogs and shopping cart systems; sound and video clip
libraries; banner ads with built-in shopping carts, click-through
tracking, and full-site search capabilities; online auction interfaces;
extensions to Flash, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, etc.; front-ends to
databases for administrators; and much more). Here, in Muck's "Flash
Remoting: The Definitive Guide," is everything you need to know to do
the same--whether you're a Flash programmer who wants to interact with
an application server on some level, or you're an application server
programmer who wants to learn to interact with Flash applications.
This book includes:
Flash Remoting fundamentals (including UI components, RecordSets,
internals, and more) Server-side environments (with individual chapters covering Flash
Remoting development with ColdFusion MX, Server-Side ActionScript,
Java, .NET, and PHP) Advanced Flash Remoting techniques, such as calling web services from
Flash Remoting, extending UI components and ActionScript objects, best
practices, testing and client- and server-side debugging Real-world application A thorough Flash Remoting API reference
Flash Remoting pushes the limits of what is currently possible on the
Web. "Flash Remoting: The Definitive Guide" offers readers the chance
to learn how it works--and how they can put it to work for themselves.
Additional Resources:
Flash Remoting: The Definitive Guide
By Tom Muck
With Branden Hall, Joel Martinez, Alon Salant
ISBN 0-596-00401-X, 612 pages, $39.95 US, $61.95 CA, 28.50 UK
order@oreilly.com
1-800-998-9938; 1-707-827-7000
About O'Reilly
O'Reilly Media spreads the knowledge of innovators through its books, online services, magazines, and conferences. Since 1978, O'Reilly Media has been a chronicler and catalyst of cutting-edge development, homing in on the technology trends that really matter and spurring their adoption by amplifying "faint signals" from the alpha geeks who are creating the future. An active participant in the technology community, the company has a long history of advocacy, meme-making, and evangelism.
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